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Monday, November 19, 2007

ITC is targeting a pan-India presence for its Choupal Fresh stores. Riding onthe success of stores in Hyderabad, Pune and Chandigarh, the company

is mapping out plans to open these in over 50 new locations. It will set up at

least 10 stores in each location over the next two years.

The proposed expansion will also focus on strengthening its farm linkages indifferent states, besides setting up front end stores. The company is likely tospend over Rs 200 crore by March 2008 to open these new stores. It is also intalks with a host of retail chains for supplying fresh produce, again buoyed bythe experiment with Q Mart and Food Bazar.

“We are not only talking to more chains for such an arrangement but are alsoplanning to ramp up this model with existing partners in other locations acrossthe country,” a senior ITC official told ET. ITC’s existing partners are retail chainslike Food Bazaar to whom it supplies fresh produce.

This would mean bringing more than 2,500 acres under its farm linkagesprogramme. This model entails partnership with farmers along with acommitment to source their produce. The company advises farmers on thecrops to be grown and the cropping patterns. It also helps in sourcing highquality seeds to ensure that the end product matches ITC sourcing standards.

Apart from the ten stores planned for each city, ITC is also looking at creatinga couple of cash and carry outlets in all the locations. The company’s cash andcarry outlets — providing grade-A and grade-B vegetables and fruits inHyderabad - is reckoned to have been a success with push-cart vendorsand commercial establishments like hotels and restaurants, said companyofficials.

“Choupal fresh stores work on the model of selling the same day’s producethat we source from local farmers,” S Sivakumar chief executive AgriBusiness ITC told ET.

In Andhra alone the company plans to scale up its farm linkages to over,200 acres by the end of this fiscal. It plans to add 13 more stores to itsexisting seven in the city of Hyderabad. “We may add another five clusterssoon and are already in talks with farmers for greater engagement,” he said.ITC is also working with farmers on the cultivation of exotic varieties likebroccoli, yellow and red capsicum, Chinese cabbage, lettuce and so on.For this, farmers are trying out both polyhouse and open-air cultivation,which are inspected regularly by ITC agri field experts.